Upcoming Book Events

Thursday, 2/28/2013

• Henry Homeyer will be at Gibson's to talk about Wobar and the Quest for the Magic Calumet beginning at 4pm (note special school vacation timing).
• Authors Mary Johnson (An Unquenchable Thirst) and Kristen Ringman (Makara) will be at RiverRun talking about their work at 7pm.

Saturday, 3/2/2013

• Toadstool Bookshop, Milford will host Kathryn Miles, author of All Standing: The Remarkable Story of the Jeanie Johnston, The Legendary Irish Famine Ship beginning at 1pm.
• Ramani Durvasula will be signing You Are Why You Eat at Barnes and Noble, Portsmouth at 1pm.

Monday, 3/4/2013

• Randy Susan Meyers will be discussing The Comfort of Lies at RiverRun at 7pm.

Tuesday, 3/5/2013

• Earle Whitcher, author of Judy's Journey will be at RiverRun at 7pm.

Wednesday, 3/6/2013

• Sean Ferrell, author of Man in the Empty Suit will be at RiverRun at beginning at 5pm.

Book of the Week #9

By This Wing: Letters by Celia Thaxter to Bradford Torrey About Birds at the Isles of Shoals 1888 to 1894, edited by Donna Marion Titus (Manchester, NH: J. Palmer Publisher, 1999)

Celia Thaxter was an author and poet and was well known for her gardens. She was also an enthusiastic birder and contributed an article for the first issue of Audubon Magazine (Feb. 1887). Bradford Torrey was a writer and naturalist with whom Thaxter maintained a correspondence. Her first letter, written December 7, 1888 and enclosing a bird's wing) was to ask him to identify the birds that had descended upon the Shoals in great numbers and was unknown to the place. (It turns out to be a kildeer plover.) This collection of letters describes the ornithological landscape of the Shoals in the late 1800s in the words of a poet who loved the place. 
 

During February 2013 author Mary Robinette Kowal has issued a challenge to anyone willing to take it up: The Month of Letters Challenge. In honor of this challenge, all the books-of-the-week during February will be collections of correspondence. If you enjoy these types of books you may also want to check out the Postal Reading Challenge being hosted by The Indextrious Reader.

Q&A: Linda Kepner

There are a lot of wonderful writers living in our state. As the Director of the NH Center for the Book I get the opportunity to talk to many of them. I thought it would be fun to start an interview series here on Book Notes to share that experience a bit with my blog readers. This is the first installment in what I hope will be a regular series of Q&As with New Hampshire authors.

If someone hasn't read your work yet, where should they start?

Linda Kepner

My books are all stand-alone books, in different genres, so what you read depends on your interests.  My first book was Play the Game, a science-fiction adventure.  My second was The Whisperwood Ordinaire, a fantasy-magic adventure.  My third book is Second Chance, a (slightly historical) romance.  My fourth book, Second Chance Sister, a sequel to Second Chance, will be released by Crimson Romance in early 2013; my fifth, Planting Walnuts, will be released by Flying Chipmunk Publishing later in 2013; and my sixth, The Life and Times of Griswald Grimm (additional stories featuring the Whisperwood Ordinaire characters), will be released by FCP - umm, after that.

When did you first think of yourself as a writer?

Since fifth grade, I think. That's the year my dad saw something of mine on the kitchen table and asked me what book I copied it from, sort of a backhanded compliment.  I've always loved fantasy and science fiction.

How did you end up living in NH?

When I was in grad school, I saw a job ad for a beginning position at a NH high school, and came out to take it because I was broke and I needed someplace to be! All my possessions were in the back of my (very cheap) car, and I moved out to a minimally-furnished apartment in Keene.

Where do you like to write?

I've now got a desk set up in our master bedroom, and my husband [author Terry Kepner] has the spare bedroom, so we don't disturb each other.

How important is place in your writing?

"Place" is very important in my writing.  I grew up in the country, and there is a lot of that rural insularity in things I write.  Many of my characters are defined by the places they were born or grew up in, even if they're fantasy-world places.
What do you do when you aren't writing?

Work.  Read.  Read at work.  Teach a little.  Parent a little.  Run a LOT of errands.  I'm also a member of several writing groups, some which communicate by Internet and some which are "live."  I love the "live" ones best - Monadnock Writers Group, NH Romance Writers Association, the occasional Broad Universe get-together.  I'm trying to work more on my web site (which I enjoy) and my blog (which I hate - I am SO not a "blog person.").

What’s the best piece of advice (writing or otherwise) you were ever given?

That would probably have to be medical advice, since I stressed out from trying to do too much and getting no thanks for it, and made myself physically ill (I had diverticulitis and spent 2 months out of work, after surgery).  So maybe it's "Take time to smell the roses."  I know I'm not as unhappy as I used to be, and that takes some hard work!

What books do you love and what about them speaks to you?

I love Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and also Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe, because those two men really know how to handle words.  But I think there were passages in Dorothy L. Sayers' Gaudy Night that spoke to me more than anything else I've ever read, where Miss DeVine and Harriet Vane are discussing living up to others' expectations of one, and how "it is absolutely fatal to listen to them."  I have found that again and again to be true.

What are you working on now?

 I just proofread the galleys of Second Chance Sister, and got rejections for a couple of contests I entered with partial manuscripts (I think I averaged about a C-plus).  So I'm working on something silly, a story about vampires that will probably never see the light of day (pun intended).

What do you want to share that I neglected to ask about?

We are all pressed for time.  This is not news.  Don't bother telling me about how pressed you are, because I am, too.  Just carve out that little bit of time, lovingly, to write at night or browse a store without buying anything, or doing a favor for a neighbor.  The favor isn't the gift, it's the time.

Upcoming Book Events

Wednesday, 2/20/2013

• Dudley Laufman and Liz Jones will be reading at the Poetry Society of NH open mic and meeting at Gibson's Bookstore starting at 7pm.
• Learn about The Path To A Play at a Free February Family Event at the LaBelle Winery & Event Center with Maryann Cocca-Leffler and the Toadstool Bookshop, Milford starting at 6pm.
• Musician and writer Dave Brigham will read and discuss his story from Tales from the House Band, Volume 2 at RiverRun Bookstore at 7pm.

Thursday, 2/21/2013

• RiverRun Bookstore will host an event with writers whose work is included in Blood Moon: Best New England Crime Stories 2013 starting at 7pm. 
• Historian Bruce Heald will be at Gibson's Bookstore to talk about his book Gypsies of the White Mountains: History of a Nomadic Culture at 7pm. 

Saturday, 2/23/2013

• Abi Maxwell will be reading and signing her novel Lake People at Toadstool Bookshop, Milford at 11am. 
• Mystery author Karl Putnam will discuss In the Shadow of Mount Monadnock at 11am at Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough.
• Cory Doctorow will be at River Run at 7pm to read and sign Homeland. "Tickets are $5. The $5 ticket can be redeemed for $5 in credit toward the purchase of one of Cory's books. (One ticket per book, please.)"

Sunday, 2/24/2013

• Cory Doctorow will be at Gibson's Bookstore at 3pm talking about Homeland. If you don't know Doctorow's work, check out the overview Gibson's put together.
• Tim Dorsey will be at Toadstool Bookshop, Milford at 11am to talk about Riptide: Ultra-glide, his latest Serge novel.

Book of the Week #8

Letters from a Sharpshooter: The Civil War Letters of Private William B. Greene, Co. G, 2nd United States Sharpshooters (Berdan's) Army of the Potomac, 1861-1865, transcribed by William H. Hastings (Belleville, Wisc.: Historic Publications, 1993).

The events of an historical period are brought to life by hearing from the people who were there, who saw what happened and heard what was said. Interpreting what this meant is an entirely separate question, but the letters of someone who was there tells us something unique about how it felt to be in a particular place and time. This collection of letters, interspersed with photos, illustrations and maps describes the U.S. Civil War from the perspective of a New Hampshire boy.

William B. Greene was a seventeen year old student when he caught the contagion of war fever that swept the country in 1861, Against his mother's wishes he joined his boyhood friends to examine the options available in this national 'rush to arms.' It was never a question of if, just how. ... Private Greene's war letters are rare not only because he was a member of the elite Berdan's Sharpshooters but because he experienced the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. Most enlistments were for three years and, with the appalling rate of sickness, combat death and mutilation, desertions and just plain being 'used-up', to last even those three years was unusual. ... This incredible collection of letters gives us a very personal and honest view of the American Civil War. As with many Civil War soldiers, William B. Greene, Co. G, 2nd United States Sharpshooters, Army of the Potomac, neither feared death in combat nor agonized over the killing involved. ... This is the story of a young man, and a young nation, coming of age." (excerpted from the Introduction)

 

During February 2013 author Mary Robinette Kowal has issued a challenge to anyone willing to take it up: The Month of Letters Challenge. In honor of this challenge, all the books-of-the-week during February will be collections of correspondence. If you enjoy these types of books you may also want to check out the Postal Reading Challenge being hosted by The Indextrious Reader.

An Interview with the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature

During the first International Summit of the Book, held at the Library of Congress last December, Center for the Book Director John Y. Cole interviewed National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Walter Dean Myers. Their interview is included here with the permission of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.



Walter Dean Myers, photo by Cecelia Rogers, Library of Congress

Cole: How did you choose your theme, Reading Is Not Optional?
Myers: As I began speaking to young people and how to approach them. …. I would hear teachers say, "Books are wonderful, they can take you to other places." And I began to ask young people, "What does this mean?" and they said, "If you want to, you can have a lot of fun with books. If you want to, you can learn about other things." I thought this was bad because reading is something you have to have to exist in this world.My dad, who was a janitor, could not read or write, yet he always prided himself on the fact that he could support his family. Today he couldn’t. Not without reading. How reading affects national security is not talked about much. … The most American thing we have in this country is the ability for the lowest classes to lift themselves. … Without reading they can’t do this. I was raised in a foster family. My mom read at a third-grade level. She read romance magazines to me. … I wasn’t attracted to the stories but I was attracted to being with my foster mom. … Eventually I learned to read. … I never knew she was giving me something. … But now I know. When I was 14, my family began to disintegrate. My uncle was murdered; my father went into a depression; my mother became an alcoholic. So I was thrown away. My grades plummeted but I had books. I had the New York Public Library [while growing up in Harlem]. So when I had the difficulties with my mom, I found my voice in books, in "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." … I had "The Red Badge of Courage." Books gave me the voice that expressed my individual humanity.

Cole: How did you get into writing?
Myers: I had speech difficulties. I couldn’t speak very well or read very well aloud. … My teacher told me to write something. I began writing little poems, and I really enjoyed that; that was the only thing I was praised for. I enjoyed writing.

Cole: You are one of the most prolific writers of books for young people. Walter has written more than 100 books. He is known throughout the country and the world for his concern about youth. This is reflected in his young adult fiction, with its focus on his experience growing up in Harlem, which is reflected in his tours throughout the country. I would like to ask you about your first year of touring. The National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature is chosen not just for his or her work but for their ability to relate to kids. Can you point to some of the wonderful experiences you have had not only at places like festivals but also at detention centers?
Myers: I am particularly interested in prisoners. I wanted to know their reading levels; what did they read. ... And for me, I have seen prisoners that I first saw in grade school and then seen them 10-15 years later in maximum security prisons, and to me that is absolutely shocking. But it’s the truth. I find that some people come to reading for the first time in prisons because they don’t have the community putting them down; they don’t have family anxieties, and they discover books. … Many of the prisoners tell me that if they had read early on, they could have changed their lives. They could have known that they were not unique; that their problems were not unique and that they could have found ways to solve their problems. I was in prison yesterday with 16-18-year-olds; some of them in prison for murder. You see a kid who is 16 facing 39 years in jail and it is shocking. Here is a person I wish I could have read to and maybe taught his parents reading skills. I could have made a difference.

Cole: I see you are wearing a rather handsome medal. This is the medal we have had made for our various National Ambassadors.
Myers: It’s awkward in the shower.

Cole: How did you feel when you heard you were selected?
Myers: I have been looking at literacy for many years and I have seen the gaps. While I am very grateful for the opportunity to spread the word and read so much about literacy, it is also a responsibility that I take very seriously. I want to finish this term being useful. On my tombstone I want it to say, "He was useful." I don’t want to just say the words; I want to make a difference.

Books of the Week #7

Love Letters to Spike: A Telegrapher's Lament with a Brief, Eclectic History of Communications in the Seacoast by Bill Holly (Portsmouth, NH: Placenames Press, 2004)

 "Herbert D. Waldron plied his craft as a telegrapher at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for three months in the spring of 1914. Over thirty of Herb's letters come down to us today, written to his sweetheart Grace, his beloved 'Spike,' back home in Hartford, Connecticut. Faithfully reproduced with all their inaccuracies intact, Waldron's letters--and author Bill Holly's research and commentary--provide a unique snapshot of 1914 Portsmouth and environs, from the perspective of a young, lower middle class working man. Swinging from exuberance to pathos, they detail the minutiae of Herb's days. Practically nightly, we find our young friend at the movies, dances, minstrel shows and sporting events--all the while complaining how broke he is. At the same time, Herb's travels about the area serve as a convenient framework for the exploration of the Seacoast's rich communications history. The story is well-illustrated with many rare period photographs and engravings from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries." (publisher's blurb)

Bill Holly, K1BH, has been an amateur radio operator since 1964 and is also the author of The Vibroplex Co., Inc., 1890 to 1990.

During February 2013 author Mary Robinette Kowal has issued a challenge to anyone willing to take it up: The Month of Letters Challenge. In honor of this challenge, all the books-of-the-week during February will be collections of correspondence. If you enjoy these types of books you may also want to check out the Postal Reading Challenge being hosted by The Indextrious Reader.
 

Book of the Week #6

The Letters of Robert Frost to Louis Untermeyer (NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963)

"What must you think of a silence as long as this to a letter as good as that?" 

Thus begins the first letter of a this collection of correspondence from Robert Frost, one of New Hampshire's most beloved poets, to fellow poet (and critic) Louis Untermeyer. Reading the letters of a poet (or any other writer) often provides an insight into their creative process. This particular collection is full of Frost's thoughts on his life as a writer ("Your Post review encourages me to think I ought to keep writing. You believe in me and I do too. I wonder if we are both wrong." 3/13/1917); his reading ("...I think you overvalue [Archibald McLeish's] article. It is the prose of a college-educated and practiced publicist trying hard to think." 2/17/1935); and gardening advice ("And by the way I should hardly want to prescribe for your radishes without seeing them. I have always found it dangerous to prescribe for or treat radishes in absentia" 7/13/1918). I think it is too easy to put the great writers of the past on pedestalsand forget that they were real people. These letters introduce the reader to the man who was Robert Frost.

During February 2013 author Mary Robinette Kowal has issued a challenge to anyone willing to take it up: The Month of Letters Challenge. In honor of this challenge, all the books-of-the-week during February will be collections of correspondence. If you enjoy these types of books you may also want to check out the Postal Reading Challenge being hosted by The Indextrious Reader.